MLP episode review: Winter Wrap Up · 10:42pm May 26th, 2014
Okay. *Doffs hat and gloves, tosses snow shovels into the gabage* No, seriously. After this winter all four of my family's shovels were damaged. But it's time to sing and dance becase
Winter Wrap Up
has arrived!
We open with Twilight and Spike sleeping. She then wakes up without an alarm clock. God I wish I could do that. And exposits it's Winter Wrap-Up Day. Spike wakes up and asks if it's his Mommy. "You're not my mommy." Some people read into this. I see a dragon not even fully conscious yet. Spring is tomorrow, so everyone in Ponyville has to clean up winter. God, I so wish I could clean up winter in one day! Spike grouses about cleaning up winter. Apparently in Canterlot they use 'magic' to change the seasons. I'm down for that even more! Twilight says Ponyville was founded by earth ponies, so they don't use magic to clean up winter. I am... not down with that. At all. Twilight meanwhile has gotten on cute booties and a fur-lined saddle. Without her magic. Spike says it's ridiculous. Again, agreeing with the dragon here. She checks off everything, goes out and... it's still night.
After the credits and a time-skip we see her galloping to City Hall and everyone gathered outside. We see them all wearing vests denoting their teams. Blue for weather, green for plant and tan for animals. She wonders what vest she'll get. Spike wants blue, same color as his blanky. Hah! Mayor Mare makes a speech, which is about all she's good for. Twilight does adorkable jumps. Lyra jumps up too with a slasher smile. But everyone splits up and Twilight doesn't know where to go.
And... we get our first mass song. 'Winter Wrap-Up'. it is... my favorite song of the series, bar none. Maybe it's part of where I live, maybe it's first installment wins. I don't know, nor care. I love it. We get our first glance of Doctor Whooves, Dinky Doo... it's just a great feel-good song for me. Not much more I can say. But at the end, Twilight's conflicted. Still no clue what to do or go! She doesn't know what to do without her magic. Yeah, that bit irks me. Not from the song, but overall. More thoughts later...
She tries the weather team. Dash is the leader. She's sent flight crews to retrieve the birds that flew south for the winter. There's also clearing out the clouds. Twilight asks if she can help, but Dash... uses tact and flaps her wings with a sheepish expression. Dang, too bad you chased Trixie outta town. She could've helped with the clouds! :p Dash flies off, and Spike decides to take a nap. Twilight is determined to do her part!... Somehow.
We come back from commercial and see Rarity making nests for the birds coming back. Without magic. They're gorgeous! Twilight tries and... WAIT! Rarity uses telekinesis to move the basket! Lock her in chains!!!!!! She instructs Twilight on how to make a nest, which happens offscreen. Complete with odd sound effects. Rarity's voice becomes a bit frantic as we pan over and see Twilight's bird's nest, which looks more like a 'real' nest than Rarity's nest/basket. Spike mocks her, and for once I'm not on his side. He even calls it an outhouse! Bad, Spike! Bad! Rarity shoves Twilight aside as her OCD kicks in. And Twilight is embarrassed and needs a hug. *Hugs* And she goes nuts. Twilight hangs her head and walks off. :(
She finds Pinkie doing her best Nancy Kerrigan. She's ice-skating over the frozen lake, which will make it easier for the weather team to break the ice and get to know one another. ;) And she's got some legit skills, too. Twilight tries to help, but we get the typical ice-skating fail. It's kinda stock, but expected. Spike pushes her and she goes nuts. And he's still a jerk, too. Boo! Pinkie tries to spare Twilight's feelings, but when pushed admits she was nowhere near as bad her first time around. She suggests Fluttershy.
Twilight goes to find Fluttershy waking up all the animals. It is as adorable as it sounds. It's her favorite task. And we get a bit of clumsy educational content about hibernation. Porcupines come out, hug and sting themselves. Okay, that's good. But she's stressed at all the work she's got! Twilight volunteers to help. This one can't go wrong! But it does. First she wakes up snakes! Then she backs up into a cave and wakes up bats, maybe some robins too. :p She flails over and knocks down a bee's nest, inciting Nicholas Cage and Amazons Attack jokes. And finally, skunks. Ugh!
Back at Golden Oaks she's bathed in tomato juice. Spike says to use magic. I agree with Spike! But no, TRADITION! Which is bullshit! Twilight says they've never needed magic to wrap up winter. I'll get back to that little lie later on. He keeps on saying to use magic, and she says no.
We cut to Applejack sorta managing the clearing of the fields. It's... haphazard at best. Twilight comes along and Applejack does some exposition about them clearing the fields for planting. First they clear the fields, then plant and water. Twilight asks to help, and Applejack is doubtful at best. Twilight tries one of the plows, but she can't even make it budge. It's just so... pathetic. She remembers Spike's words and decides to use a come-to-life spell on the plow. It begins and at first works, much to Applejack's shock. Spike spots the horn's glow and cheers her on. But the plow begins getting away from her. And as much as I don't want to...
Two.
She speeds by a group of plows headed for the exact same point, splatters Blues Noteworthy, then runs right into Applejack and Spike. Applejack accuses her of magic and then it hits a hill. A huge snowbank comes loose and covers half the field. Applejack is pissed. Apparently more about the magic than the extra work they'll have to do! "That's not how we do it around here, Twilight. And especially not on my farm!"
Oh, really?! Then next time you need help during Applebucking Season don't ask Twilight for help, you jackass! Don't ask Rarity for help, either!
Spike turns on Twilight and I am legit hating on him. Spike, I defend you a lot. Here, I toss you in front of Darkseid. Twilight tears up and gallops off. I feel like punching Applejack and Spike at this point.
Twilight's in a bush while Spike tries to save himself from my wrath by sucking up. Spike, I have a Darkseid toy. And more than one toy of yours, too. He says she has a lot of skills, but makes her feel worse. We overhear Applejack telling Dash to melt the snow. She's on it! But Fluttershay says to wait. The animals' homes will be flooded! Melt! Stay! Melt! Stay! Dash tells them to make up their minds, and Mayor Mare comes in and says this is why they were late last year, and the years before that! She was hoping her speech would've inspired them, but now they'll be later than ever. We see the ice chunks are too big, Rarity's gone insane on fixing Twilight's nest. There are also clouds in the skies, icicles in trees. Big Mac comes along and says Caramel lost the grass seeds. Ditzy went north to get the southern birds. Last year she went west as a large argument breaks out. Mayor Mare says they'll be late again. And wishes they were more organized!
And Twilight SPRINGS into action! She sends Spike to get her clipboard and checklist. STAT! She... squeezes a bird to get their attention. She says they need organization! So we get a omtage of her directing everyone to get stuff done. And it's a lot better than before. And it's set to a great instrumental of 'Winter Wrap-Up'! It ends with the birds flying in. And Spring has sprung! The ponies gather to sing Twilight's well-deserved praises. Mayor Mare is shocked and I am about to impeach her. Twilight says it's a team effort, and she gets a special vest. All three colors. "All-team organizer"! Yay!
And we see Spike asleep on the last chunk of ice in the middle of the lake. I laugh at him and his ensuing cold. He falls alseep.
Thoughts
I am... of two minds with this episode. It's funny. It's heartwarming to see Twilight struggle and then come out in triumph. It's a good lesson. There's a role for us all, and we all can help. It's great worldbuilding. It's great teamwork. But, well, lemme quote InserAuthorHere from his own review of the episode:
Winter Wrap Up is a racist holiday built around a stupid tradition.
In other towns, at least Canterlot, Winter Wrap-Up is done with magic. With Ponyville it's a bit... simpler. No magic. Well, no unicorn magic. It's a tradition dating back to the old times! Except this isn't the old times anymore! Unicorns are there. And one day a year they're told, "You can't use your natural talents to make this task a hell of a lot easier." Of course the pegasi can use their wings and magic and earth ponies can too. Okay, shoo off all the pegasi and get some ladders and scissor lifts.
And here's the thing, the 'traditional' way doesn't work! They've been late who knows how long. Right then and there that tells me to stop with the TRADITION! and try something new.
So at first glance, and second or third this is a great episode. But there are some bad implications lying underneath.
Sir, you did not put a link to one of the most famous songs of the show in. I am here to fix that problem.
Winter wrap up winter wrap up! Let's finish our holiday cheer!
Ah have ta disagree on the matter of tradition - aside from the fact that yes, if unicorns are expected not ta use magic the same should be said of pegasi. Earth pony magic isn't somethin' that can really be turned off, so ah don't know what yer expectin' from them.
The thing is that this tradition is somethin' the unicorns seem altogether too happy to participate in, an' it's obvious why when ya think about it - unicorn magic would barely make this any easier at all for most of them, and make it extremely easy for a scant few. Remember what was established in Boast Busters? Most unicorns only have a little magic related to their special talent. In Canterlot there's obviously no lack of magical talent ta help out, but in Ponyville you'd have pretty much all the work bein' done by maybe six ponies - Twilight, Rarity, Colgate, an' all three Trixies. Most a' the other unicorns would have nothing worthwhile ta contribute, an' what happens to yer big community holiday when ya take away the community aspect? Twilight not only respects this, but until she gets desperate she insists on it without anyone at all tellin' her to, despite Spike's nagging.
As for Applejack not wanting magic used on her farm, if she doesn't need magical assistance - which has been all of twice, an' one of those times was extremely stupid - then who are you to ask her to abandon her values? Doin' things her family's way is important to her, it's already been well-established that breakin' with tradition is hard, ah might even say traumatic, for her, so if someone comes to, again, her farm an' jus' disrespects those traditions outright, yeah, ah think she has the right ta be mad about it. She coulda maybe been a little less hard on Twilight about it - though ah expect gettin' hit by a runaway snowplow would get mah dander up, too - but then, Twilight could've asked.
Spike meeting Darkseid, huh?... *makes notes for potential side story for Justice League of Equestria*
This is one of the big episodes where you can start seeing some real species disharmony between the three major species of Equestria. Especially with magic seeming so unnatural and unreliable and such...
It gets worse when you start hitting genus (i.e. Zebra/Pony relations), and I'm surprised that Spike and Gilda aren't both being watched Very Carefully by all the Right Ponies in town. But, then again, racial and species discrimination isn't something you want to talk about in a girl's cartoon show. But, the fans are more than willing to write fanfictions about the Glorious Unicorn Race or the Rainbow Factory...
I wanted to see the Spike toy meeting Darkseid
2147911 I second that.
"Winter Wrap-Up" was the song that made me love songs on MLP.
I'm reminded of Falling High, where Ponyville's unicorns have their own tradition; on Winter Wrap-Up, they take the day off instead. Not allowed to use magic? They won't use it, or anything else either.